Debra Loewen

Education

MFA, Dance, UW-Milwaukee
BFA, Dance, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Biography

Debra Loewen earned a BFA in dance from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and an MFA in dance from UW-Milwaukee. She formed the New Space Company while teaching at the University of Delaware, where her interest in site-specific work was first recognized in the early 1970's. She lived in Colombia and Peru, where she taught, choreographed and performed with Ballet Moderno and the National Ballet of Peru. As a solo performer and independent choreographer, she performed her work in Canada, California, Philadelphia, Chicago and throughout the Midwest. She also toured with Interface Inc. wearing a movement-sensitive costume interfaced with a computer/sound system. Her work with modern dance pioneer Robert Ellis Dunn began in the late 70's continued until his death in 1994. In 1987, she founded Wild Space Dance Company, creating more than 100 works for the company while performing to critical acclaim throughout Wisconsin and in Chicago, Minneapolis, New York, Japan and Korea. Over the past two decades, Loewen has earned multiple choreographic fellowships from Milwaukee County, the Wisconsin Arts Board and the National Endowment for the Arts. She currently teaches at UW-Milwaukee and Lawrence University and leads Wild Space's residencies at Lincoln Middle School of the Arts. She has consulted with K-12 educators to help design dance residencies and promote arts-in-education projects and conducted choreography and contact improvisation workshops throughout the Midwest.